


Suffocation

by ComingandGoingByBubble



Category: A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder - Lutvak/Freedman
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-09
Updated: 2017-03-09
Packaged: 2018-10-01 10:42:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10188059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ComingandGoingByBubble/pseuds/ComingandGoingByBubble
Summary: Just a little one shot about Sibella's relationship with Lionel while she pines for Monty.





	

She sat with a tense quietness about her. Sibella was never one to show dramatic emotion in public, though in private it depended on whom she was with, but out in the open she managed to keep her emotions at bay. Lionel had snaked one of his hands around hers as they sat at the table together. Sibella, perched sideways in her chair, faking an engaging conversation with some silly party guest whose name she had already forgotten, grimaced for a second as Lionel tightened his grip. Her back was to Lionel, but she’d be damned if she couldn’t feel his presence as if he was staring straight at her. He too was sideways in his seat, chatting away with some politician or other. Their intertwined hands were the only thing keeping them together. Her eyes drifted away from her partner in conversation, some poor chap who had gotten himself into quite a rant about some new deal in America, and she found herself glancing towards Monty.  
He was sitting with Phoebe, the docile girl too eager, too enthusiastic at the chance of seeing and talking with other people. That girl was sweet but she didn’t know when to shut her mouth. Sibella could see that Phoebe’s incessant talking was wearing on Monty. He wore it on his face plainly, though, Sibella knew him well enough to know his signs of exhaustion.  
His eyes met hers.   
The tense quietness that hung about her nearly snapped. She straightened in her chair just a bit. An ever so small smirk crossed her lips.   
Suddenly she felt Lionel’s cold hand on her bare back, for her dress was quite low with a nice stoop in the back, and the smirk disappeared from her lips altogether. She found herself zapped back into that tense quietness, that ever-lasting silence.   
She now knew what bothered her about Lionel. He was too quiet, he didn’t talk enough. Maybe he and Phoebe would get along. At the thought she laughed to herself, the only sign of emotion of her face being that her cheeks blushed only slightly. She bit down on her lip hard as Lionel glanced at her while talking to the man.   
“Isn’t that right, Sibella?” he asked.  
Sibella faked a smile. “Yes, darling. Yes of course,” she replied although she had no context as to what he had been referring to, nor did she care.  
Lionel nodded approvingly and snaked his other hand, the one that was not tightened around her hand, around her waist.  
Sibella maintained a polite smile throughout the conversation. After a few more minutes, she snuck a glance back towards Monty.  
He was sitting there, much like she was. Phoebe was giddily talking to her neighbor at the table, and yet her hand was wrapped around one of Monty’s. Monty was staring straight at Sibella, almost absentmindedly, almost as if she was the only thing he could bear to look at.  
He too, sat with this tense quietness about him.  
Sibella grinned softly before turning that grin into a lip bite.   
Maybe that was their secret then. Maybe they were both trapped in this air of tense silence together… waiting for the other to escape before it suffocated them both.  
Lionel’s hand tightened, and the suffocation began all over again.


End file.
